Improvement in car-couplings



M. c. GARDNER.

Car Coupling.

Patented Dec. 8, 1863 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MITOHEL O. GARDNER, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAR-COUPLINGS.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MITCHEL O. GARDNER, of the city of Rochester, countyof Monroe, and State of New York, have made and invented a certain newand Improved Self-Acting Coupling for Railroad-Oars; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a full and accurate description of the same,reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, making part of thisspecification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, sameletters referring to like parts in both figures.

The nature of this invention consists in so constructing the buffer-headthat it shall be certainly and securely self-acting, and this not onlywhile the various parts are new, but after the holes have become wornand the pins and links bentand out of shape; and although the problemthus presented for solution is a difficult one, it will be found that acoupler constructed after the manner to be presently described satisfiesevery condition.

My buffer-head or coupling consists, primarily, of the wrought-irondraw-bar D D and east-iron blocks 13, which are connected together bymeans of a wrought-iron band shrunk on after the manner described in thepatent issued to me on the 27th day of April, 1858.

'In order to produce a reliable self-acting coupling, in which theordinary pin and link may be used, (a condition absolutely necessary, asit is often requisite to mingle cars with the new coupling in the sametrain with cars provided with the ordinary arrange ment,) the followingpoints must be attained:

First. The pin must be securely held in an elevated position untilreleased by the link. Blows and jarring must have no effect upon it.

Secondly. The pin must be guided to the hole in the lower plate of thebuffer-head without any reliance being placed upon the guiding action ofthe hole in the upper plate. This is absolutely necessary, as the pinsare often bent, worn, and otherwise injured.

Thirdly. The link must be so held when in place in one coupler that itwill infallibly enter the other.

Other points are of course necessary, but

these are the essential requisites to be aimed at. These are allattained in my coupler by the following means: The cast-iron blocksforming the funnel-shaped head of the coupler contain not only the usualholes for the pin and slot for thelink, (which latter is prevented frombeing driven too far into the coupler by means of properly-adjustedstops,) but also, in addition to these, two holes or grooves, one ineach block, the axis of these holeslying in a plane at right angles tothe line of draft, and ascending outward from the slot which receivesthe link at about an angle of fortyfive degrees, as is shown in Fig. 1,which is a front elevation of my buffer-head, the pin, the balls, andthe holes for the motion of the latter being shown in red lines.

It is now obvious that if a link should be arranged as shown in theright-hand buffer of Fig. 2, and should be driven against the l fthandone, it will separate the balls upon which the pin rests, and will allowthe latter to drop; but as the pin falls no faster than the ballsseparate to make way for it, it is evident that the point of the pinwill be guided in an ac curately vertical direction until it falls intothe hole in the bottom plate of the buffer-head.

The accuracy with which this is effected, even when the pin is small andcrooked, must satisfy even the most skeptical that the problem has beensolved; andthe butter-head costs no more than those of ordinaryconstruction, while it is liable to but very slight deterioration fromtear and wear, and at the same time allows the wrought-iron portion (themost expensive part) to be used over and over again.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim therein as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The method herein described of supporting the pin P by means of theballs 0, moving in holes or grooves at right angles to the line ofdraft, the whole operating in the manner and for the purposesubstantially as described.

M. O. GARDNER.

Witnesses:

FRED O. WILsoN, JOHN PLINE.

